Fikac: Are school vouchers, sanctuary city bans on legislative radar?

Published 8:06 pm, Sunday, August 5, 2012

AUSTIN - Ultraconservative Republicans are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of a Legislature that might be far enough to the right - and scared enough of tea party power - to push long-thwarted measures like school vouchers plus last year's stalled ban on so-called sanctuary cities.

But some warn they might want to use a bit of caution.

"If they do something like an Arizona law and vouchers, I'm sorry, my peeps will go out," said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, adding that school cuts also stir concern.

Given Texas' changing demographics - particularly the growing Latino population - Democrats on a long losing streak are expected to be competitive again within perhaps eight years.

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Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said that timetable could speed up if Republicans overreach on issues like an anti-sanctuary city measure that would ensure law officers can ask detainees about their immigration status - even if police chiefs think it's a bad idea because it could threaten community cooperation. Some opponents fear it could lead to profiling, despite efforts at safeguards.

Tea party favorite Ted Cruz disagrees with Van de Putte's assessment. His victory over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the GOP nod for U.S. Senate could stir fear among traditional Republicans over the consequences of voting against any conservative legislation, since Dewhurst was painted as a moderate despite a list of conservative accomplishments.

"If Democrats think that Hispanics are big-government socialists, I think they're profoundly mistaken. The reason the next Texas Legislature is likely to be more conservative than the preceding Legislature is because elected officials are accountable to the people, and the voters of Texas are demanding of all their elected officials that we live within our means," Cruz said in an interview, adding that he supports the ban on so-called sanctuary cities and believes that Texans want an end to them.

Some Republicans have a different agenda than vouchers, sanctuary cities and another conservative-backed bill to target untoward groping by airport security officers.

House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio said he's going to focus on issues like education, water, energy and making the budget more honest, saying, "Some of these other sideshow issues are not on my agenda at the top."

Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said Straus "represents the next generation of Republican politics. When and if the party begins to feel vulnerable to a challenge from Democrats, Straus is positioned to fill that void."

Coming home to roost

Dewhurst says there are different campaign decisions he'd make, given his loss to Cruz. A decision made outside his campaign, however, may have had the most profound effect. Dewhurst and other legislative leaders presided over a redistricting map that ended up in a court fight that pushed the March primary back to May.

That gave Cruz more time to make inroads with voters - time so valuable that one activist attributed the delayed primary to God.

"In some ways, Dewhurst was hoist by his own petard, passing a redistricting plan that was clearly going to be challenged and was clearly not going to be implemented unchanged," said Jones, the political scientist. While a court challenge arguably is expected to any redistricting plan, he said, "Clearly the Republican plan was so partisan and so clearly ignored key aspects of the Voting Rights Act that it was without question going to face serious problems. ... The delays hurt Dewhurst. They were in part of his own making."

Latino Texas governor?

The choice of San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro for a coveted spot as keynoter for the National Democratic Convention left some to swoon over him as the Latino Barack Obama - or at least predict an unlimited political future.

"If I had $100 - which I don't have with me right now - I would bet $100 he will be the first Latino governor of Texas, probably about 2018, maybe 2022. He's dynamic, he's extraordinary, he has the background," Wayne Slater, senior political writer for the Dallas Morning News, said on Current TV's "The War Room." "If I had another $100, I would bet that in years in the future this guy, Julián Castro ... may very well become the first Hispanic president of the United States."